Hryhory Nestor - Oldest Man In The World

Hryhory (Gregory) Nestor, born 1891

In March of 2007, I received an email from a fellow genealogist regarding a 'Nestor' who was turning 116 years old in the Ukraine! Since Nestor is anything but common, I started researching a bit.Hryhory (Gregory) Nestor is from a village south east of L'viv (south western Ukraine - which was part of Galicia Poland until the 1940's).My great grandfather, Michael, was born in 1887 in a town south east of L'viv! I compared pics and wow! Many people have said that the resemblence is there in the nose, chin and brow bone! Wouldn't this be an amazing connection? Absolutely amazing! I'm so excited at the possibilities! I'm writing a letter to mail to Mr. Nestor with the hopes that it reaches him soon! Update: Mailed the letter written in Ukranian, with a return paid envelope and never heard back. :(On a news clipping, Mr. Nestor sings a little birthday song and is very well aware of everything for 116 years old! He was a shepherd his whole life and never married. He credits his long life to potatoes and vegetables!Below is a picture of my great grandfather, Michael Nestor (dated about 1911) and Hryhory Nestor. Note the similarities?The man who pines for the days of the Austrian empire Luke HardingThursday February 15, 2007The Guardian

It is one of the world's forgotten dynasties. It once stretched from Bohemia to Budapest and the Balkans. But the Austro-Hungarian empire enjoyed a posthumous boost this week thanks to 115-year-old Hryhory Nestor - the world's oldest human. Nestor lives in a small village in western Ukraine. His home, 25km from the historic city of Lviv, has for centuries been at the centre of feuding empires. The Habsburgs, the Poles, the Soviet Union and now the Ukrainians have all been here. Tracked down this week, Nestor - who celebrates his 116th birthday next month - was asked which of these regimes he liked best. "Things were best under Austria," he said. "You could go where you wanted, live where you wanted. And there was work for everyone." Nestor recalled his life as a young man before the first world war. He slept outside, drank fresh milk and ate cheese and potatoes. He had several girlfriends, but did not marry any of them. The world's oldest man now lives with his late sister's granddaughter in the village of Stariy Yarychiv. A moustached, diminutive figure in a denim jacket, Nestor is a bit deaf, but still active. Born on March 15 1891, he is nearly two years older than Yone Minagawa, a Japanese woman who celebrated her 114th birthday last month and was said to be the world's oldest person. The Austro-Hungarian empire fell apart in 1918. Nestor was 27. Western Ukraine became part of newly re-established Poland. "When the Poles took over, there were Polish beggars everywhere. And then there was the front and soldiers would come and take everything away," Nestor recalled disparagingly. Next came the Russians, who invaded in 1939 under the Nazi-Soviet pact. They were no better. "Those Russians promised us all sorts of things - tractors, combines, cars when they were setting up their kolkhoz [collective farms]," Nestor said. In the forced collectivisation that followed, millions of peasants perished. "They told us the kolkhoz was not obligatory. But you had to do it," he added. Nestor puts his extraordinary longevity down to the fact that he never married. "I liked my freedom. I would spend my time with one girl and then another. And then I would go off somewhere with the guys," he told Reuters. Ukrainian newspapers discovered Nestor's story only recently. There are few doubts about his age: he has Austrian, Soviet-era and Ukrainian passports, all of which confirm it. His only aspiration now is to live until his 116th birthday on March 15.FEBRUARY 2008 UPDATE:Hryhoriy Nestor, aged 116, died in his home village in Ukraine on Friday. He was thought to be the oldest person on Earth; however his age was not officially recognized by the Guinness during his lifetime. So, officially the oldest person was thought to be the 114-year old resident of the United States, Edna Parker. Mr. Nestor died quite unexpectedly in his sleep, after completing his daily routine around the house and washing his head with cold water as usually. His death was a shock for his relatives, who didn’t suspect anything, as Mr. Nestor felt very well and did not complain about anything but the slight head-ache. This is a video of Hryhoriy Nestor in 2007: